Appalachia Barbecue is located at 5309 Cherry Lawn Road, below Country Club Apartments and HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Huntington. It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Brian Fridley prepares pork shoulder in his smoker. Fridley is the owner of Appalachia Barbecue, located at 5309 Cherry Lawn Road, below Country Club Apartments and HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Huntington. It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Appalachia Barbecue opens in Huntington

Sep. 19, 2013 @ 07:18 AM

PAUL SEBERT

HUNTINGTON — There’s a new barbecue joint in Huntington.

The brainchild of owner Brian Fridley, Appalachia Barbecue first opened in August. The new restaurant offers a small selection of pulled pork, barbecue chicken and beef brisket sandwiches.

“I have about 22 years of experience in the restaurant industry,” Fridley said. “I‘ve worked at a number of different restaurants including The Blackhawk Grill, Panera Bread, Applebee’s, Famous Dave‘s and Qdoba. Everything I have worked on over the past few years has lead to me wanting to pursue this business on my own. I have some twins in my family who have some disabilities and I wanted to start my own business to help support them. I had started practicing my recipes and using a smoker that we had acquired. I spent about 4 or 5 months tweaking the recipe and I spent a couple of months working on the wood blend. I started doing some catering. The catering business picked up and that prompted me to start a restaurant as an actual career.”

The building was formerly a workshop.

“This building used to belong to a professor by the name of Bernard Dick,” Fridley said. “It was his workshop, and he used to make tabletop games here. He used to make them for kids. After my family moved in, I decided we should do something with this building. I thought it looked like one of the small barbecue shops you see in Texas. We had to do a lot of remodeling. There was a stack of wood we had to clean out, re-hang the sheet rock, fix the lights, and move in all the kitchen equipment before we were inspected by the health department.”

Pork and chicken sandwiches sell for $6 and beef brisket is $7. All sandwiches come with a side of coleslaw. For $2, customers can upgrade to a barbecue platter featuring coleslaw, baked beans and a side of chips. For picnic lunches, customers can also order meat by the pound and sides by the quart. Chocolate chip cookies and fudge brownies are also available for dessert.

Fridley plans to add ribs to the menu soon.

“What I tried to recreate with my rub is the flavor of a barbecue chip so you could have the smoke flavor and the barbecue flavor already on it,” he said. “I tried to meet the sauce so it‘s not too sweet and not too vinegary.”

Appalachia Barbecue is located at 5309 Cherry Lawn Road, below Country Club Apartments and HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Huntington. It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Cash and all major credit/debit cards are accepted. For carryout orders and catering information, call 304-840-3089.

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